If you are concerned that an employee may be under stress, you should take the time to evaluate the individual's daily habits. There are many signs that suggest a person is under stress, and although not all individuals display the same signs, you can usually tell if an employee is under stress when he displays some or all of them.

Steps

1

Take note of any changes to the employee's working day performance. For example, he is suddenly not completing his work as usual and so he has to stay late or even take some if his work home.

2

Search for slower productivity--often a sign of employee stress. If an employee is under a lot of stress, he will feel so overwhelmed that he cannot keep his usual pace of work because he is distracted by that same feeling of being overwhelmed. It's a vicious circle that he cannot escape from because his mind is consumed.

3

Look for a decline in the employee's quality of work. You can recognize this in the extent of errors that you are finding, in addition to the type of errors. Only you would recognize whether the mistakes are out of character.

4

Recognize consistent weariness and irritability in an employee's demeanor. Maybe he is unnecessarily short in his responses to your queries or he loses patience easily. But any form of jittery behavior should not be ignored.

5

Notice whether your employee is showing signs of poor judgment regarding issues that he is usually responsible for, or maybe he is demonstrating uncertainty when it comes to making even the smallest decisions.

6

Pay attention if it seems that a usually witty employee has suddenly lost his sense of humor. Maybe his usual extroverted personality has gotten quiet and reserved, or his optimism has turned into a strange cynicism.

7

Be wary of constant complaints of headaches, nausea, and other types of physical illness in an employee. Additionally, increased sick days and requested sick leave should be a cause for concern about an employee's stress level.

8

Remain attentive when you notice a usually reliable employee become habitually late. Also, if an employee cannot seem to meet deadlines or cannot fulfill specified timelines, he may be under stress.

9

Listen to what your employee is saying when he complains about his workload or threatens to leave, even if he attempts to speak in jest. If these comments are out of character, then he may be indirectly communicating his anxiety.

10

Establish whether your employee takes regular vacations. Taking your role and responsibilities seriously at work is admirable, but when that attitude reaches the point of obsession, you may have a stressed employee in your team.

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